Had my R1 interview today. Other than getting to Ithaca (and now getting out..) everything went fine. Standard questions. A 2nd year student asked most/all questions, with an adcom sat along and evaluated both, him and me.
I was told that none of them has seen the application, they don't do so purposely to get a better sense of the candidate fully from the interview.
Advice to all R2 candidates - avoid the Syracuse-> Ithaca route, the buses run only twice during the day, and they can run late. Or well, your flight can be caught in a snow storm (like mine), you might land in timberland before Syracuse and miss the bus. And driving in a snow storm on this deserted route isn't worth. I had booked the tickets a while back with no prediction of a storm, missed buses and ended up driving - it wasn't so bad as the storm just subsided, and I managed to share the ride with someone interesting en route to Ithaca as well
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